This Week at Interior August 18, 2023

Transcript:

I’m Cicely Muldoon, Superintendent at Yosemite National Park and you’re watching This Week at Interior! 

This Week at Interior 

Secretary Haaland this week led the United States presidential delegation to the inauguration of Santiago Peña as President of Paraguay. The delegation met with key counterparts and partners, participated in the inaugural ceremony and events, and met with President Peña to reinforce the United States’ commitment to and strong relationship with Paraguay. The Secretary also met with women Indigenous leaders to hear about the challenges and opportunities they face. 

This week marks the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act. Among the historic investments being implemented at Interior, the Bureau of Land Management announced more than $18 million in funding to support 39 shovel-ready restoration and resilience projects in 10 states. BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning made the announcement during a visit to a project site in the Blackfoot-Clark Fork Restoration Landscape, east of Missoula, Montana. 

Interior this week announced the launch of a new program and $72.5 million in funding through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda to help Tribal communities electrify homes. It's a critical step toward the goal of electrifying all homes in Indian Country with renewable energy sources and advances the administration’s goal of a carbon-free electricity sector by 2035. The funding comes from the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate investment in U.S. history. 

Interior this week announced $50 million over the next five years to improve key water infrastructure and enhance drought-related data collection across the Upper Colorado River Basin. The Bureau of Reclamation is making an initial $8.7 million investment to support drought mitigation efforts in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. 

Department leaders are on the road this month, highlighting how investments from the Great American Outdoors Act -- or GAOA -- are addressing long-deferred maintenance projects. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Deputy Director Siva Sundaresan visited Crab Orchard National Wildlife Refuge in Marion, Illinois, and Dale Bumpers White River National Wildlife Refuge in Saint Charles, Arkansas, to highlight the success and importance of GAOA funding across the National Wildlife Refuge System. 

The Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement this week awarded $100,000 to restore the Pennsylvania watersheds at Dunkard Creek in Dunkard Township. OSMRE’s Watershed Cooperative Agreement Programs help local nonprofit groups restore watersheds harmed by abandoned mine lands and support citizen-based conservation in coal communities. 

And our social media Picture of the Week, the northernmost national park in the United States, Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve in Alaska. It's a vast landscape with neither trails nor roads, and visitors seeking its remote wilderness must rely on the knowledge, skills and equipment they bring with them. 

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That's This Week at Interior. 

This Week: Secretary Haaland leads the U.S. presidential delegation to the inauguration of Santiago Peña as President of Paraguay; BLM announces $18 million in funding for shovel-ready projects on the one-year anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act; it's the launch of a new program to electrify homes in Tribal communities; $50 million is on the way over the next five years for infrastructure and drought mitigation in the Upper Colorado River Basin; Department leaders are on the road this month to highlight investments from the Great American Outdoors Act; OSMRE awards $100,000 to repair a Pennsylvania watershed; and we're going north for our social media Picture of the Week!